Two days after Thor Hushvod was caught behind the mass pileup on the run into Ghent, Thor Hushovd had a much better view of the finish line on Wednesday. Helped by the lighting fast leadout from Crédit Agricole teammate Julian Dean, Norway’s No. 1 cycling star was first across the line in Joigny to take victory in stage 4 of the Tour de France. “I’ve had a lot of problems at the start of the year,” Hushovd told TV reporters after the stage. “Today Julian did an amazing job for me. He had the power and that’s what I needed to win.”

In the overall standings, Hushovd’s 20-second time bonus for the stage win pushed him to second overall, 29 seconds back of Fabian Cancellara (CSC). Astana’s Andreas Klöden is third, at 0:33, with George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) the top American, sitting fifth at 0:43.

The break of the day took off at the 33km mark, with Frenchman Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues Telecom) initiating an attack that was quickly joined by Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Gorka Verduga (Euskaltel), Christian Knees (Milram) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank). They had a minute’s advantage 5km later, and by the 53km mark it was 3:30, with the trailing peloton settling into a comfortable pace.

For the third straight day, rubber left the road on several occasions. The worst pileup ended Spaniard Xabier Zandio’s (Caisse d’Epargne) Tour. He suffered a broken collarbone, becoming the third rider to drop out of the race, reducing the field to 187. A half hour later there was another mishap, with Staf Scheirlinckx (Cofidis) and Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step-Innergetic) both sliding off the road. Neither was injured and both were quickly back in the field.

“In a sprint I don’t check out my rivals,” Hushovd said. “I have total faith in Julian Dean. All I do is stay on his wheel, that’s the only thing I’m focused on. He launched a really fast sprint at 450 meters, and then he pulled off with about 150 to go. Then I finished it off with a good sprint myself.”

As I watched the Stage 4 sprint start to take shape, I was impressed, no blown away by the great tactics that were displayed by Thor Hushvod and Julian Dean (both of Credit Agricole). Dean rode his heart out, keeping Hushvod tightly tucked into his draft, and at the same time making sure that no other riders were able to jump on. Even when Dean moved out of the way he was still able to keep up a pretty quick pace, launching Hushvod at the finish line. Hunter makes a brave effort to catch Hushvod, but he just did not have enough road. This is the best sprint that I have seen in quite a awhile, fast, well executed, and safe. So if you know someone who wants to see what a sprint finish is supposed to look like, remember this one, and show it to them.